On a frigid November Friday night before the Pep Rally, Team Wolfpack and Team Foxcroft gathered in Phelps Stadium for the Annual Cluster Soccer Championship. Propelled by two goals from Hirsh Chitkara ’14, Team Wolfpack left the field victorious, with the final score at 4-3. Team Foxcroft arrived to the pitch 40 minutes early to warm up, while Team Wolfpack arrived just before the game, without a soccer ball to practice with. “Our motto all year was ‘Winter is Coming,’ so we really felt that we were in our element while we were warming up,” said Chitkara, as snow began to fall during the teams’ warm-ups. Chitkara explained that Team Wolfpack used pregame music to help boost their spirits. “We always listen to a theme song from the TV show Game of Thrones—that show is how our team name came into being… I was really pumped up because a lot of my friends were in the stands, and I didn’t want to disappoint on the big stage,” said Chitkara. Hector Cho ’15 of Team Foxcroft scored the first goal of the game when he launched a powerful shot far away from the goal that deflected off of a member of Team Wolfpack and into the back of the net. Team Foxcroft added another goal to make it 2-0, but Chitkara and Cole Benedict ’14 both tickled twine for Team Wolfpack before the end of the half to make it 2-2. “We weren’t used to playing with a deficit, but once we got the first goal in, we got more comfortable and got into the competitive state of mind,” said Chitkara. Chitkara scored again in the second half when he took a through-ball past the Foxcroft defense, got slide-tackled from behind, stumbled to his feet and slid a shot past the Foxcroft goalkeeper, Ben Bolduc ’16. Andra Gusman ’14 netted the winner after weaving through the Foxcroft defense and nailing his shot in the top-left corner of the goal. The nifty goal gave Team Wolfpack a 4-3 lead that held up until the end of the game. “At first, I was taking advantage of a good throw-in, but a defender was in my way and I tried to find someone to pass it to, either Matt Powers ’14 or Cole, but since I couldn’t see any good options, I decided to go for the glory. I was inspired by a move that Neymar made in a game just before our match. With my wolf-like instinct, I aimed for the top left corner and the crowd went wild,” said Gusman. Amogh Sharma ’14 said, “We let the inner wolf inside of us out that night.” Team Wolfpack’s lead, however, was threatened by a strong blast from Kyu Hyun Lee ’15 that ricocheted off of the crossbar. “Our performance was superb. The soccer gods failed us,” said Harvey Wu ’14, Team Foxcroft’s Captain. “On an average day, it’s 98 percent luck, one percent skill and the other one percent depends on the wind,” concluded Catalina Feder ’15 of Team Foxcroft.
